“‘Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God,’ the Vatican’s chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones … Funes said that such a notion ‘doesn’t contradict our faith’ because aliens would still be God’s creatures.

Funes urged the church and the scientific community to leave behind divisions caused by Galileo’s persecution four hundred years ago, saying the incident has ’caused wounds.’

In 1633 the astronomer was tried as a heretic and forced to recant his theory that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.

‘The church has somehow recognized its mistakes,’ he said. ‘Maybe it could have done it better, but now it’s time to heal those wounds and this can be done through calm dialogue and collaboration.'”

My Response: Kabbalah says that relative us and this program of actions, we are the only ones in the universe. This is because humanity constitutes one created soul, and by attaining ourselves and the Upper World within this soul, we discover that we are united into one whole with the Creator. We cannot discover any more than this (see the related material below on the attainment of reality). It explains that everything we attain, everything we perceive as existing, is what we reveal inside us, and anything we don’t feel remains outside us, as if it is nonexistent. Everything exists relative the observer. The religions will experience such setbacks again and again, because they are based on suppositions rather than attainment.

2 Comments

Kabbalah establishes us in “the Firm Base of Attainment”. Very satisfying and reassuring Response to the Vatican news about Aliens.Thank you.

Armand Brun ~ Mar 8, 2012 at 3:55 pm

Why would the Creator create such a vast Universe if we are his only Creature? Why would the Creator do this knowing that we would be looking out into the Cosmos?
It makes absolutely no sense to me!
Here are some facts;
*The Milky Way Galaxy has about 800 billion Stars (Suns)
* The Universe has about 200 Billion Galaxies.
* To date, NASA has discovered thousands of Planets and concluded that there are Planetary Systems for all the stars out there.
Now why would the Creator allow us to “perceive” this Universe if it does not exist?
Why would the Creator even allow this Universe to be perceived to be so big?
None of this makes sense and is not explained by your various answers throughout all your teachings. All your answers are vague and never explain anything. And you always follow that with, it’s because we are not able to sense the Creator as you do.
This subject and other things you teach are disturbing to me. The Creator would not be so foolish to allow us to be led into believing that you are the only answer. There are billions of people that will never hear of you or Bnei Baruch. Am I to believe that the Creator has only one path (you) for us to follow and to hell with those that don’t find Bnei Baruch?
One thing you have said that is true; The Creator is within us.
So why do we need you to find him?
Absurd!